Butternut Squash Soup with Curry Roasted Chickpeas

Before I begin, I have a tip for this recipe. When you are transferring the leftovers to your Tupperwares after the soup is finished, try as hard as possible not to spill half the soup onto the counter/all over the front of your shirt and jeans and then spend 20 minutes cleaning up as your dog eats half the leftovers. Okay now that we covered that, moving on!

This soup tastes as good as it looks! If you have never made butternut squash soup before, you should really try it. It is such a basic, simple soup to make. Perfect for Easter since you will already be busy preparing the rest of dinner! This is actually a great make ahead meal. Soups get better as they sit in the fridge, so you could easily make this soup a day or two in advance and just heat it up when dinner is ready! You would probably want to roast the chickpeas that same evening so they will be nice and crispy, but that requires barely any effort from you. Your oven does all the delicious work :).

This soup has so much great flavor. The onions and garlic simmering with the thyme and sage add so much to the butternut squash, and using homemade chicken stock or veggie stock doesn’t hurt either ;).

The best and most flavorful part of this dish though, in my opinion, are the amazing little crispy curried chickpeas that you sprinkle over each bowl of warm soup. Seriously people, if you haven’t tried roasting chickpeas…then you be crazy.

I always keep cans of chickpeas around the house for this very purpose. They are the BEST snack. Seriously better than chips…seriously. Especially when you throw some edamame in there with them :). They are the my-phone-is-ringing-from-across-the-room-but-I-don’t-want-to-leave-the-sheet-pan-and-stop-snacking-to-go-pick-it-up kind of good. If you roast them right they get so crispy and perfect. You can use any seasoning on the chickpeas that you want and they just transform into delicious, healthy little gems.

I love the curry seasoning on these, and I think the flavor goes perfectly with this soup.

The crispy chickpeas are a perfect contrast to the smooth soup. The two are a match made in heaven!

You should really think about making this soup this weekend as a side for your Easter dinner. It is just too easy and too delicious to pass up!

Now for Easter memory #3!

As you know if you have ever celebrated Easter, you end up with a TON of candy. An absurd, embarrassing amount of candy. Up there with your post-trick-or-treating Halloween stash. For my poor parents, they had three kids worth of massive stashes laying around the house. I am pretty sure any adult who has spent more than 5 minutes around a kid knows that a 7 pound pile of candy and a child is not a desirable pair. So my parents invented something called “The Candy Fairy.” This is basically how it worked: you “turn in” your candy to the Candy Fairy if you want by leaving it outside your bedroom door and, in return, the Candy Fairy leaves you a toy. Of course we always chose the toy over the candy. Toys are crack for little kids. And there ya go…happy parents, happy kids! I don’t know about you, but I feel like The Candy Fairy was a pretty brilliant idea. Get your kids to voluntarily and gladly give up their candy and avoid the terrors of sugar induced energy highs. The Candy Fairy was conveniently in town every day after Halloween and Easter. Good times.

Instructions

Add your onion, garlic, sage, and thyme along with a little salt and pepper

Meanwhile, prep your butternut squash. For more detailed instructions, look to the bottom of the recipe

When your oven is preheated dump the chickpeas onto a baking sheet, drizzle with the olive oil, and sprinkle with the curry seasoning and salt

Mix with your hands so everything is evenly coated

Place in the oven to bake for 15 mins, then take the chickpeas out, stir them around with a spatula, and bake for another 15 mins

Add the butternut squash in with the onions and stir to combine

Add your stock

Bring the soup to a boil, and reduce to a simmer

Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until the butternut squash are tender when pierced with a knife

Transfer the soup in batches to a food processor (or use an immersion blender if you have one) and puree it completely until the soup is smooth

Top each bowl with crispy chickpeas when ready to serve

For the butternut squash : there will be a bulbous bottom to the squash, cut that off first and set aside. Slice the top off the butternut squash and peel using a knife. Many don’t use the bulbous bottom because it is more prep for not as much meat. I used it in this recipe because I didn’t want to waste the vegetable. If you want to use it, slice in half horizontally. Set it flat against the cutting board and peel it like you would an orange. Scoop out all the seeds and guts with a spoon and chop.

*Gluten Free and Vegan*

If you make this or any of my other recipes, make sure to Instagram it and hashtag #thegarlicdiaries!

I love this soup! It looks so good and love that you added roasted chickpeas – so creative! Oh, and so cute about the candy fairy. I hated candy as a child, so my Easter baskets included mostly toys and a few chocolate bunnies that my mom usually ended up eating!Keri @ Fashionable Foods recently posted…Mashed Cauliflower